


Crocodile Tears

by billspilledquill



Category: HiGH&LOW (Movies), HiGH&LOW: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Digital Art, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Microfic, listen if i'll have to fill this pairing tag myself then so be it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29500953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/billspilledquill/pseuds/billspilledquill
Summary: Hiroto meets Smoky in the aftermath of his brother's death. Nothing happens.
Relationships: Amamiya Hiroto/Smoky
Comments: 12
Kudos: 14





	Crocodile Tears

**Author's Note:**

> i apologize to all my subscribers with all this high and low content. i also apologize to the people that want high and low content and thinks this will be quality. mea culpa

“You are afraid,” Smoky says.

Hiroto inches away. Smoky let the reptile walks over his arm until it rests on a red patch, stitched half-heartedly on the sleeve.

“They are striking. They are necessarily seen as a threat when they look striking.”

Hiroto rests his head on the pole, winces when he realizes how dirty it is. “It is going to rain soon. Are you going home?”

Smoky’s eyes rest on the crawling thing. The clouds gather in the sky. “Here is my home.”

“Right.” Hiroto closes his eyes. Hits with the smell of humidity. He has forgotten where he is for a moment. “I am in Nameless Street.”

“You haven’t visited in a long time.”

“I had things to do.”

“I am not complaining.”

“I am not explaining myself to you.”

Drops hit Hiroto’s nose. He blinks his eyes open. The animal has curled in Smoky’s hand. There is blood on the glove.

“Intruders.” Smoky has noticed his staring. “They were with people in the street.”

“Your family?”

“They have to do what they can to live.”

“By deceiving you.”

“People that betray this street get their organs gutted out.” Smoky’s eyes have not moved away from the beast, its nails digging into the cloth. “The liver, the spleen, the heart, everything.”

“Have you done it?”

“I have seen it. The heart. It is very red.”

Hiroto looked. He came closer, mindful of the little thing on Smoky’s hand. He balled his hand into a fist, let it settle on Smoky’s chest. The heart doesn’t beat as loud. It is not Smoky’s heartbeat.

Smoky drops his head, the reptile moves. Hiroto takes a step back; Smoky lets him.

“It is not my blood.”

“I know. You would not cough into your hands. It is too noticeable.”

“I have done that before.”

“It’s different now. You can’t worry them further, do you?”

Smoky doesn’t bother answering. Rain trickles then pour. It clouds Hiroto’s vision; Smoky bends down, his hand on the ground. The animal escapes for shelter.

“It’s going to die. The rain is too much for something of this size.” Hiroto watches as Smoky curls his limbs, crosses his arm. “I’m sure they are looking for you. Your family.”

“You want me to go?"

“This rain is not going to stop anytime soon.”

Smoky doesn’t move before tilting his head up. Hiroto looks down. The disbalance in looking down at him, an illusion. 

Smoky opens his mouth. His voice clouds like it clouds Hiroto’s eyes.

“You are not going.”

“So are you.”

“You shouldn’t come here anymore.”

“Yeah. You told me so.”

Smoky is different in the rain. Holding a glass towards the sun, and beauty crystallizes, fractionates. He looks miserable, he looks beautiful.

“You shouldn’t come here.”

“You are afraid.” Hiroto finds the word as the rain drowns its sound. Someone has died in this kind of rain, someone important. Smoky’s lips curl downwards, his hair dripping.

“I am not.”

“You are.” Hiroto thinks, then. The word drips out of him. “You are striking.”

It is a half-lie. Everything appears striking in this rain. The animal shrivels up and dies somewhere, in a corner where no one sees. It is a half-truth when Hiroto thinks that he can stay here until he dies, until Smoky does.

Hiroto stoops down. Smoky sees him under a curtain. Smoky extends a hand, his half-covered glove grating the skin, the fingertips freezing, frost-like.

“There is no need for that.” Hiroto’s hand closes on something that is not quite alive, not quite warm. “I am not crying.”

“I never said you were,” Smoky says, the hand moving down. Hiroto ducks his head.

“I am not leaving.”

Smoky lets his hand linger on the leather jacket. It glistens against water. “You are not listening to me.”

Hiroto laughs. “What, are you going to take out my liver? Are you going to gut out my heart?”

The hand pushes against the leather. The pressure makes Hiroto bite his lips. The ribcage rattles, contracts; the ash-white bones enclose unto themselves bristly. The beat relents. It is a hollow sound.

The hand pushes and pushes, it wants to dissolve itself into him. “I see it,” Smoky says. His hair is plastered on his cheeks, the strands moving as he puts his head there, on Hiroto’s heart, the hand slithering down. “It’s a beautiful shape.”

Hiroto trembles. It is so cold. The rain crawls between them, like ants, like serpents, like something _striking_. Smoky looks at him through the water. Hiroto can call those tears if he wants; he doesn’t want to. 

“Take it, then.”

“You are stronger than me.”

“I will. I will let you."

They sit in the rain. They sit on the ground and water pours. When Hiroto first met him, it has been a clear day.

“Masaki is waiting for you.”

“So is your family.”

“Are you leaving?”

“You are not.”

“No. I am not.”

There isn’t time for circular questioning, and yet there seems to be. There is endless time, as long as this rain doesn’t end. In Hiroto’s mind, someone is dying. Someone is always dying in rains like this, in storms.

Hiroto takes Smoky’s hands. He takes the gloves off, trembling. Their hands tremble; water bleeds through.

“It’s cold,” Smoky says.

“It will be warm soon," Hiroto says. 

He brings them to his eyes; lets the rain wash them through. 

**Author's Note:**

> The lovely [Draconismin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draconismin/pseuds/Draconismin) did a beautiful [Smoky](https://imgur.com/c6UTHnW), check it out! I did a [Hiroto](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sUQYGVzXkVfwY2EpZDih9TJ3q809rgUw/view?usp=drivesdk) to their Smoky as well.


End file.
